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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29329935">The Perception</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRaichu/pseuds/TheRaichu'>TheRaichu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:13:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29329935</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRaichu/pseuds/TheRaichu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny Michael Davis assigns a new project to the fourth floor: contact lenses that record what you see and monitor the brain to track how you feel. What was just meant to be a two-hour data collecting experiment isn't so simple when Zoey's powers freeze time for a song and the lenses pick up on the discrepancy. Can Zoey keep her powers under wraps, or will they be revealed to the world?</p><p>Set during the first half of season 2.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Perception</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Danny Michael Davis is here for a surprise visit.” Tobin yells from the top of the large boat sitting in the middle of the fourth floor. </p><p>Zoey can’t help but let out an exasperated sigh. She’d been agonising over code for the Chirp all morning, trying to distract herself from the programmers’ shenanigans. Despite the disaster jerseys and rotten eggs from the last time she had tried to delegate, she’d been feeling very overwhelmed trying to live up to the expectations of filling Joan’s shoes. So a few days ago she assigned team building exercises to Leif, who was easily influenced by the other programmers calling him captain. Now they were all pretending they were on a fancy (and stable) boat ride as they ate seafood and spoke like pirates.</p><p>She knew she shouldn’t be getting upset with them, they were genuinely team building, the brogrammers were even starting to get along with the girls. It’s the boat she had an issue with. All she could think about was sailing with her father, both when they were younger, when he was still healthy, and those few months before his death when she’d just got her powers and discovered he was still inside his body. They’d gone on a boat and he’d held her mothers hand and everything improved.</p><p>But he’s gone now. </p><p>How is she supposed to get the Chirp out of R&amp;D hell when all she can think about is how much she misses her father? Sitting in an office and trying not to cry while everyone else cheerfully plays on a not-even-moving landbound literal boat certainly isn’t helping.</p><p>So Danny Michael Davis showing up is really not the thing she needed to hear right now. Not to mention, last time Danny showed up unexpectedly, and she’d been devastated about her father, her powers had glitched and she’d pretty much ruined her life.</p><p>“If you have a song ready to come out, now is the time.” She murmurs to herself as she notes down where she is in her code. “Better that than in front of everybody again.”</p><p>An instrumental does not start as she slams her laptop shut, but as she leaves her office there’s sudden music. Zoey bites her lip and clasps both hands over her mouth, trying to get a head start on stopping whatever lyrics are about to spill out of her mouth. To her relief, it’s Danny Michael Davis who’s singing, not her. Her powers aren’t glitching—or at least not yet.</p><p>The relief is short lived however as the entire office bursts into a musical number, doing all sorts of flips and stunts off the sides of the boat as they all join Danny is his song about how he’s irritated that people are letting him down.</p><p>Zoey lets her arms fall to her side as the song finally stops, snapping her back into reality.</p><p>“Zoey.” Danny announces. “Why is there a boat in the office? I hate boats.”</p><p>“Team building…” Zoey offers him the truth.</p><p>“Team building using a boat?” He narrows his eyes. “It’s genius, I actually love boats.”</p><p>Everyone laughs, and Zoey offers him the most polite smile she can muster. “So what brings you here today, Mr Danny Michael Davis.” </p><p>“No need for formalities, you can call me Mr Davis.” He stares down at Zoey. “Just kidding. I was just kidding. Call me Danny.”</p><p>More laughs, some polite, some genuine, although from whom Zoey couldn’t tell.</p><p>“Danny,” Zoey clears her throat, “How can I help you? Whatever it is I won’t let you down.”</p><p>“Just what I wanted to hear.” Danny ponders. “It’s like you read my mind. Or did I start narrating my thoughts out loud while under the influence of”—he chuckles, glancing around—“nothing. Let’s head into your office, Zoey.”</p><p>“Right.” Zoey finds herself practically jogging to keep up with Danny as he enters the office and sits behind the desk in her seat. </p><p>“Oh yeah, this is where you sit, huh?” He mutters to himself before moving to the other side. Zoey slides into her seat, offering him a taut smile. “Not sure if you’ve heard, but Ava Price from the sixth floor has quit, apparently upset that Joan was promoted over her.”</p><p>Zoey nods—she’d heard from Simon that Ava had quit. If only Ava had been promoted, then Joan would still be here to mentor Zoey as a boss, and maybe go out and get a few drinks as a friend. If that were the case everything would be so much better and easier. Zoey can’t help but sigh.</p><p>“It is just complete chaos up there now.” Danny continues. “So while I do some reorganizing and rehiring and remembering and rehearsing and all sorts of ‘re’s, I’m reassigning their current project to the fourth floor.”</p><p>“Then what about the Chirp?” Zoey asks, running a hand through her hair. “Will that be reassigned while we work on this new project, or is the plan just to put it on hold for the time—”</p><p>“Oh no, you misunderstand.” Danny interrupts. “This is in addition to the Chirp. You and your team will work on both.”</p><p>Zoey raises an eyebrow, waiting for him to say he’s kidding, but when he doesn’t she finds herself stammering out, “but the Chirp is already behind schedule, we need all resources in order to complete it within the timeline I sent you.”</p><p>“Get this,” he says, “I think your team is behind because they have too much free time, this new project will help that.”</p><p>Zoey finds herself practicing the breathing exercises Simon had taught her as she rubs her temples, struggling to find the right words to politely explain that his hypothesis is ridiculous. It certainly doesn’t help that the brogrammers begin playing a game of who can cling to the boat’s steering wheel for the longest time, with Tobin yelling in joy as he narrowly clings onto six spins before falling off, beating Leif’s record of five.</p><p>Zoey’s attention is quickly brought back to Danny as he throws a small metal capsule at her. She manages to catch it with minimal fumbling, flipping it open to see a pair of contact lenses.</p><p>“These are new tech called 'the Perception'.” Danny explains. “Contact lenses that both record what you are seeing and how you are feeling—it interprets signals directly from the brain. Put them in, this is your new project.”</p><p>Zoey stares down at the lenses, noting the blue tinge and small wiring in the center. She picks one up on the tip of her finger and holds her eye open. A sudden bundle of nerves twist in her stomach as she puts it in her eye, but when no electric shock or anything else along those lines happens she blinks a few times. Nothing even looks different.</p><p>“Excellent, I knew I could count on you.” Danny says. “Now put the other one on while I distribute these to the rest of the floor.”</p><p>As Zoey does this, she can’t help but ponder what this tech is even for. Maybe the everyday person would want one, but that didn’t seem very practical other than for internet stars who wanted to vlog using their own eyes. Maybe they were going to be bought by the police as the next line of body cams… Zoey could think of about a thousand ways that could go wrong. Or maybe they were being made to discreetly record and spy on other people? Maybe not just US citizens but to gather intel on other nations? Danny had just gotten out of house arrest, so surely he wasn’t going to break international law and get himself—and all those who work on this project—thrown into prison, right?</p><p>“Now you’ve all gotten these into your eyes, just in time for 2:59pm.” Danny announces to the floor then presses a button. “At three on the dot they will begin recording what you see and monitoring your brains, then stop at exactly five pm. Starting in three… two… one.”</p><p>Zoey feels her eyes are being forced closed by invisible hands as her sight is filled with an almost static-like grey and white. She briefly lets out a distressed yelp, and hears others around her doing the same—some shrieking, others whimpering. Just as quickly as it started her eyes snap open and she’s met with the completely regular, not even blurry, SPRQpoint office.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Danny says. “I forgot to tell you about the momentary start up glitch—that’s what you’re all going to be fixing.”</p><p>“Danny, look, can we talk for a moment?” Zoey beckons him into her office again. She paces for a moment then presses her lips into a firm line before her next few words come out a speedy jumbled mess. “You’re not correct that adding a new project will help the Chirp development. It may not look like it but the team works hard, and putting more work on their plates won’t help anything or anyone. It’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”</p><p>“I disagree.” Danny flippantly waves his hand at her. “And even if you think it’s a bad idea, consider it an experiment…”</p><p>Music starts up again; this isn’t a group number, it’s just Danny singing this time—everyone else except him and Zoey frozen in time. He begins singing a song about experimenting. Most songs Zoey knows about experimenting tended to be about sex, or sexuality. Zoey had had her own journey with that back in the 9th grade when she’d kissed a girl and realized she was bi. This experimental song seemed far more literal however—the rebellious non-ethics-committee-approved scientific kind.</p><p>He was still talking about the whole giving-more-work-means-more-productivity-on-both-projects experiment, right? As the song continued, Zoey can’t help but feel a growing unease until the final beat finishes and in reality Danny is staring at her in confusion.</p><p>“These contact lens things—the Perception—they are safe right?” The words tumble from her mouth before she has a chance to stop them.</p><p>“Now why would you ask that?” Danny narrows his eyes before quietly mumbling to himself. “I thought my new phone was more secure…”</p><p>Zoey is quick to reach toward her eye to take them out, but when her hand is mere millimeters from the Perception it lets out a spark. Zoey yelps, withdrawing her hand and shaking it until the shock fades.</p><p>“Oh yeah,” Danny says, “Another glitch I need you and your team to fix. Turns out you can’t take them out while they’re recording.”</p><p>“So you’ve come up here, doubled our workload, and demanded we all put glitchy experimental lenses in our eyes.” Zoey summarizes.</p><p>“They’re safe.” Danny deadpans, but then grins. “I’m just kidding.” This time no one laughs. “But there will be no permanent damage—I think at least. Anyway, I’m going to pick more carrots for my biological parents. I’ll be back at five to show you how to take them out though.”</p><p>And with that, he gets up and sprints away. </p><p>--</p><p>Well Danny was sort of right about progress on the Chirp being made. Now that everyone knew CEO Danny Michael Davis was recording all shenanigans had stopped. The programmers were writing code like there was no tomorrow—Tobin had even solved a glitch Zoey had been working on before she could find the solution.<br/>
As promised, Danny showed up at five, the recording stopped and they were all safely able to remove their lenses.</p><p>“Great, get your data analysts to go over the recordings tonight, and summarize the key issues for the programmers to fix.” Danny says, looking over at another of the departments on the fourth floor. “In fact I already see a glitch—everyone's perception recorded for exactly 2 hours except one—yours is like a solid three and a half minutes longer.”</p><p>“Well I was the first to put them on.” Zoey offers. </p><p>“Yes, but I activated them all at the same time.” Danny narrows his eyes. “And it’s not like every single other person on the floor put them on at the exact same millisecond. We can always watch the video back and see where the extra time is.”</p><p>Before Zoey can object, her video file has been pulled up. There is a graph of various emotions alongside it, although it clearly states that it’s still in alpha testing and the range is incomplete.</p><p>“Wow, your grief is off the charts.” An analyst murmurs as play is pressed and the video, and Zoey’s corresponding emotions at the time, are displayed.<br/>
It actually says ‘top limit reached’. Zoey finds herself making a note to calibrate the system before shaking her head: she was still adamant in trying to convince Danny not to dump the sixth floor’s project on them.</p><p>Although, the reminder of her grief quickly made her thoughts crash back to her dad. She thought she had been handling it well, that throwing herself into the Chirp code was helping her through it, but if her grief was really high enough that it was glitching the tech, she should have probably talked to someone about it at the time instead of trying to distract herself. Simon had been just a few meters away, she should have spoken to him. He would understand, and help her through it. No more bottling these feelings up.</p><p>“Her dad died of a rare neurological disease.” Zoey curls her hands into fists as she overhears someone whispering this to Danny. “He really could have used lenses like these to express his emotions to his family without the need to move his face.”</p><p>Zoey’s ears began to ring. Oh my God. This really could help people like Mitch. He may be gone now, but with this new project she could help others with PCP. She could make her dad proud of her from beyond the grave. She could stop anyone else going through what she and her family did. She could raise awareness of the disease using the Perception.</p><p>“Wow, it is so strange seeing myself from another person’s point of view.” Danny says as the whole floor seems to crowd around to watch Zoey’s playback. “I am so much better looking than the photos make me seem.”</p><p>And then the video shows everyone except Danny freeze as music begins to play. Oh no. </p><p>Ohnonononono.</p><p>“I don’t remember this part of two hours ago!” Tobin loudly interjects as Zoey lunges to pause the video.</p><p>“Well, clearly it’s glitching pretty bad.” She nervously giggles and tries to casually shrug. “Experimental tech freezing, and with those weird sound errors.”</p><p>“I’ve never seen a glitch like this.” Leif adds, but when Zoey glares at him he stammers, “but trust the sixth floor to mess up so badly.”</p><p>“It didn’t freeze though.” Danny announces. “You all froze, but I was still moving. Keep playing it.”</p><p>“No!” Zoey all but yells, but Danny had already pressed a button, and just like that the video continues blasting music as it shows the CEO beginning to sing and dance about experimenting. Everyone glances between the video and Zoey.</p><p>“I never sang or danced to you…” Danny trails off, uncertainty seeping into his voice as he seems to realize that for the first time in years he’s suddenly not in control of the situation. “Zoey, what is this?”</p><p>Zoey can’t help but say the first thing that comes to mind. “Oh, Fu—”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just super loved the episode Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch, especially during Pressure when it was cutting between the Zoality and the real world, so that's sort of what inspired me to work on a fanfic where everyone could see what Zoey sees instead of thinking she's crazy/on drugs/whatever. Also the fact that we have to wait until the end of March for more episodes means I need fanfic to get me through the gap haha.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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